The Rape of Lucretia is a legend that was important to the Romans. It was a tragedy about a Roman matron woman who commits suicide. The story is important because it expresses the role of married women in the Roman civilization. It describes what behavior the Romans considered appropriate for a typical Roman wife. From reading this excerpt from the History of Rome, one learns that a women’s worth is based on their virtue, men considered their wives as possessions, and rape enraged the Roman population.…
The Fall of the Roman Republic Lynn Hunt’s analysis of the Roman Republic is far more compelling than Polybius’s. Although Polybius writes concisely about the individual institutions within the Roman Republic and how they overlap, he superimposes his mixed constitution bias as his analysis seems more focused on the theoretical outline available in the constitution. On the other hand, Hunt is not so strictly tied to the constitutional ideas of the institutions and explores how in practice they have evolved and deviated from the attributes and responsibilities originally constructed in the Roman constitution.…
World civilizations in the early ages were mainly histories of males, and the Roman civilization was no exception. There were few women's names recorded in history books at that time, and the names mostly appeared with their husbands or fathers. As individuals, Roman women were not able to run for office or even take part in voting, enjoying almost no political rights. Since their lives were highly related to their fathers and husbands before and after their marriages, it was hard for them to become economically independent and own their own properties. It also seemed to be not feasible for Roman women to achieve high social positions because of their identities as men's appurtenances. However, through the development of the Roman society, Roman women were not as powerless as they seemed to be, and the force of Roman women was more and more difficult to neglect. In fact, women had played a significant part in political, economic and social lives of Rome.…
A topic often brought up in class discussion throughout the semester was sexuality and the many aspects involved; changing my personal perception of sexuality. In September I believed sexuality was just the act of sex and or being promiscuous, but it’s a much broader subject. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter is a re-mastered version of the fairy tale Blue Beard with a sexual spin. It perfectly depicts the ideal image of sexuality to one who is more innocent than someone more experienced then alters it and shows us its variations after they’ve gained experience. This essay will explore the deception, dominance and violence surrounding the sexual relationship between the heroine and Marquis. Angela explores the aspect…
Lewd. Repugnant. Obscene. Those words are commonly associated with human sexuality, especially in modern society. Any utterance of copulation, genitals, or even sexual health, can be seen as crude or perverted. Most, if not all, parents have to face intense awkwardness when explaining the concept of reproduction to their children; the media often has to euphemize topics of sexuality in order to keep broadcasts either “professional-looking” or “family-friendly. For many centuries, human sexuality has been a topic of disapproval and has been a topic of very little discussion. This attitude towards sexuality may seem normal to those who reside in modern society, but for an inhabitant during the era of “The Epic Of Gilgamesh”, our view on sexuality…
In Shakespeare tragedies the treatment of sex has to deal with both man, woman and marriage.…
In this article, Biggins focuses on several themes, both obvious and discreet, within the plot of Macbeth. Biggins disputes other critics ' opinions that sexuality has little thematic importance in Macbeth, stating that the play is immersed in sexuality through both violent and mystical indications. Other critics refer to the play as "the purest of Shakespeare 's tragedies," in which the Porter 's remarks about drink and sex might easily seem incongruous (Biggins 255). Biggins, however, identifies not only the more obvious sexual elements, such as can be seen in the exchanges between Macbeth and his wife, but states that the play has several passages in which "the full purport has not been grasped." Biggins expounds on the mystical connotatations, and ties this theme directly to underlying themes and symbols of violence and sexuality that are prominent throughout the play.…
In both Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ sex is represented as a catalyst for sin. The love which is promised by many of the central characters in the poem and the play often has a falsehood and is used as a facade for the character’s true egotistic needs within.…
Critics of the rise of violence on television today decry the images of murder, rape, abject violence, and even torture to which we are exposed. They reason that as we are subjected to more and more violent images we will necessarily become desensitized to them and even accepting of their place in our society. What then would these modern day critics think of the piles of corpses, body parts, and violent assaults on the human form that littered 16th century English stages performing William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus? Everything old is new again. The trope of violence to convey a message is not a recent invention. It is as old as the problems of society it means to criticize. And whether our frame is early Rome, renaissance England, or post 9/11 America the same problems of political unity, factions, revenge, and abject cruelty persist. In Titus, Shakespeare means for the graphic violence not to offend his crowds but to remind them that challenges to peaceful and prosperous societies will always persist if left unattended.…
Much of the representation of the ‘Other’ in The Tempest and Titus Andronicus aligns with the Early Modern dictum that women be chaste, silent and obedient (Hull 31, 173, 195). In the interests of maintaining the social order, those that exhibited basic differences in skin colour, nationality or cultural values would likely have been expected to remain in a subordinate position within the hierarchy by adhering to the same rule that governed women – sexually restrained, silent in terms of dissent or independent thought, and obedient to their place in the hierarchy. This paper will discuss Caliban and Aaron in The Tempest and Titus Andronicus, looking at the ways in which they are clearly marked as ‘Other’ by their violation of this rule in addition to their basic differences. It will also include a demonstration of the way Shakespeare undermines this demarcation by creating similarities between the ‘Other’ and the dominant culture, and will show the means by which Julie Taymor further erodes this distinction in her film Titus.…
The women in the late 1600’s are to follow a very strict moral and religious role. Their tasks were to take care of the home, the children and tend to their husbands every whim. From the very beginning of the play, there seems to be hidden sexual tension. Men believed, young women were compelled to destroy righteous and dutiful men…
include writings on Shakespeare’s views on prostitutes and other sources include a story of a…
University of Victoria and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. “Sex and morality.” Internet Shakespeare Editions. 10 May 2010.…
Numerous early modern conduct manuals and sermons, in fact, warn that a woman’s worth was linked to her chastity, a worth which could be lost or diminished due to real or, in the case of Shakespeare’ Hero, perceived sexual indiscretion.…
Sex: the theme seen in many a book and play, can be seen in Measure for Measure in many different places. This theme is the biggest and most intricate one throughout this play. It is seen more with death, venality, and decay in this seeming dark, dismal play. Why? Because there are brothels everywhere and venereal diseases run rampant, killing many a lover and whore. There is also the rise in illicit children due to all of these brothels even though they do use safe measures to make sure their girls do not become pregnant.…